The Alga Chamber has been designed for use for student experiments using the freshwater alga,
Chara corallina. When the alga is placed in the chamber and electrically stimulated it fires action potentials which can be measured using an
intracellular amplifier (AM3100). The chamber is suitable for use with algal cells and ideal in illustrating the wide taxonomic distribution of voltage-gated channels and excitability. The action potentials are very long-lasting and nicely illustrate absolute and relative refractory periods. Chara cells are ideal as they are large and easy to make intracellular recordings using glass electrodes.
Experimental protocols using the Alga Chamber as well as other intracellular experiments are free to
download for PowerLab users.